I'm now over the halfway point in the CBYX program, with under five months to go living in Berlin. When this experience is through, I'll have spent about 19 months of my 22 years living abroad. And things are looking now as though I'll be off to another faraway land for next year (sorry, mom and dad). Someplace warm!
When I was younger I romanticized the idea of life in a foreign country...maybe because I felt so confined by my southern town I pictured myself working for the State Department or something similar where my existence would be permanently nomadic. I've obviously got the wanderlusting gene, and I've catered to it in the past few years. It's given me alot of perspective on this big world, and it's also just been fun.
No regrets. And I'm excited to go somewhere even more different next year and throw myself totally into that experience. But when Germans ask me "Do you see yourself coming back and working here?" I often have to stop myself from yelling something akin to "Hell nah!" in lieu of a more polite and vague answer. But confession: my honest answer is No. I like living in Germany, I like learning German, and I even like making a fool of myself sometimes trying to do those two things. But I know I want to live in the United States long-term. Hopefully my future will include lots of traveling, but I want a home base with an American zip code.
Not only has going abroad showed me so much about what this world has to offer and how other people live, but it has also made me appreciate so much more the US and life there. Cliché, much? I want to live in the place where I completely understand the language and the random cultural references, and where I am completely understood. I want to be where my Seinfeld lines will be appreciated, where I can take part in the holidays and traditions I grew up with (even random stuff like Groundhog Day), where buying lots of groceries and driving home is the norm, etc. etc. Of course the US has got its issues (who or where doesn't?) but they are issues I know well. Insert the most famous line from The Wizard of Oz here.
For now, though, I like this being young and mobile thing.
love dis :)
ReplyDeleteYou can come to Omaha with Sarah and I!
ReplyDeleteI hear Vandelay Industries has some openings here
i feel the same way helen! you are not alone
ReplyDeletePS can i come visit you someplace warm next year??? :)
asia beckons you. come to mea and i will show you the world...shining, shimmering, splendid.
ReplyDeleteaka nobeoka, rice paddy and chicken nanban central! you'll love it!